(PS5-71) Electrocortical Reactivity to Emotional Faces in Mother-daughter Dyads: The Moderating Roles of Maternal Depression and Rumination

Children of depressed mothers are at significantly high risk (HR) for developing major depressive disorder (MDD), compared to their low risk (LR) counterparts. Evidence shows that HR youth exhibit a reduced late positive potential (LPP), an electroencephalogram (EEG) marker of emotional reactivity, in response to social-emotional stimuli. However, it remains unknown how emotion regulation (ER) styles may impact these associations in youth. The current study sought to test how rumination interacts with maternal history of MDD to predict LPP response in mothers and their offspring. Additionally, we examined mother-daughter associations among LPP patterns to emotional faces to understand whether alterations in LPP responses are heritable.

 Participants included 101 mother-daughter (ages 9-16) dyads participating in a larger study on the intergenerational transmission of depression. 57 mothers had a history of MDD and 44 had no history of psychopathology. Participants completed an emotional faces computer task while the LPP was recorded through EEG. To measure rumination, participants completed the ruminative response scale.

 Results indicated an interactive effect of maternal MDD history and youth rumination on child’s LPP response, F(1,101)=4.30, p</em>=.04. A more blunted LPP response to all emotional faces was observed among HR youth who engaged in more rumination, F(1,56)=4.25, p=.04, r=-.30. Additionally, a more blunted LPP response to sad faces only was observed among mothers who had higher levels of rumination, r=-.19, p=.03. Results also revealed significant associations between maternal and daughter LPP responses to angry and sad faces among older daughters (ages 14-16).

 Findings suggest that there may be subgroups of HR youth and depressed mothers (e.g., those reporting frequent use of rumination) that are most vulnerable to exhibiting altered emotional reactivity styles at the neural level. Results also suggest LPP associations among mothers and daughters are only apparent among older daughters, likely due to changes in brain networks supporting emotion processing. These findings suggest that prevention programs aimed at modifying altered emotion processing styles may be particularly beneficial for reducing symptoms of depression among youth and adults engaging in rumination on a more frequent basis.